Computerized role-playing games (RPGs) have secured their place in the video game industry as one of the most popular video game types. The attraction typically comes from a mixture of the overall story (or stories) being told in the game, and the underlying game mechanics (e.g., how the characters are improved as the game progresses, how battles are conducted, etc.). In some RPGs, this mixture involves the use of two distinct types of scenes. A first scene, sometimes referred to as a map scene, is intended to show the game player an overall world in which the story (or a current portion thereof) takes place. The map scene may, as its name implies, resemble a topographical map, and may include the various cities, towns, deserts, bodies of water, forests, etc. that exist in the RPG world (or the current portion of the RPG world).
The player's character (which may include a party of multiple individuals), may be represented on the map scene as an icon, and the player may move the character icon around the map to visit different locations in the game's environment. Moving the character through the map scene allows the player to explore the RPG world, and may be a helpful way of moving the story forward.
As the player navigates through an RPG map, many RPGs provide for encounters between the player's character and other entities and/or objects not under the player's control (e.g., the player may encounter a wandering band of thieves). A second type of scene, sometimes referred to as a battle scene, is often used to present such encounters. Using a separate scene may allow for a more dynamic and engaging experience, as the player is shown an up-close view of the battle taking place, and may be given a different variety of actions that can be taken in the battle scene (e.g., certain fighting actions may be available in the battle scene, and the battle scene may show objects that might not be depicted on the map scene due to scale).
There have been two approaches to initiating these encounters from the map scene. In one approach, the map scene depicts icons that represent enemies and/or objects with which the player's character could interact. Such a map scene used a single icon to represent a group of enemies, and when the player character's icon interacted with the enemy icon, the game displayed a transition to a battle scene involving the player's character (or party) and the enemies represented by the icon. This approach helps to simplify the map scene, but also makes it more difficult for the player to anticipate the type of encounters that will occur. A player may be surprised to find that the enemy icon represented a larger number of enemies, or more difficult enemies, than expected, and the player might not enjoy the resulting battle.
In another approach, enemies are simply not shown on the map scene. Encounters in these types of games may appear to the player to occur at random, since the player has no warning in the map scene. This approach may further simplify the map scene, and the surprise nature of the encounters may make for a more exciting game experience, but the player's inability to anticipate, initiate, or avoid the encounter may also lead to some player frustration.